Guatemala, June 26.- The Guatemalan government is waiting today for a response in favor of its citizens in the United States, after asking that country for temporary protection status for migrants (TPS).
The request was made in a diplomatic note and the reason given for the request was the catastrophe caused by the powerful eruption of the Fuego volcano on June 3, which left 112 dead, almost 200 missing and more than 1.7 million people affected.
'Complying with the instructions of the president, Jimmy Morales, I have sent a note to the Government of the United States of America to request TPS on behalf of our migrant brothers in that country', published in social media Sandra Jovel, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign ministry sources admitted that due to the immigration situation of Guatemalans on U.S. territory it is difficult to have an exact number, although they estimate that there are about three million living there.
In fact, their remittances represent 12 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the national economy.
Amidst strong criticism of Morales' passive action on the recent crisis of migrant children being separated from their families in the United States, the head of state reiterated on Monday the immigration policy has always been a priority of his government, hence his request for the TPS benefit.
U.S. President Donald Trump first canceled the protection of 300,000 Hondurans, but more recently he did so with 200,000 Salvadorans and 60,000 Haitians are in the same situation, analysts noted.
All three countries benefited from different administrations because they suffered natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes.
According to data published on television, the citizens of El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti with TPS number about 206,000 households, and more than 30 percent own their homes and pay mortgages in the United States.
They live mostly in the states of California, Florida, Texas, New York, Virginia, and Maryland.
However, Guatemala has been unlucky to win Washington's favor on previous occasions, as recent history shows.
Oscar Berger, president from 2004 to 2008, asked his counterpart George W. Bush for the TPS in November 2005 in response to the damage caused by storm Stan.
In April 2008, Alvaro Colom did it after the destructive passage of the storm Agatha and in 2010 by the eruption of the Pacaya volcano, but it was not successful either.
Otto Perez Molina made the same demand in 2013 after the earthquake of November 7, 2012, and obtained silence in response.
It would be important to see if Morales' policy of flirting with Trump will bring him better luck and if it was worth it to receive the worldwide repudiation for supporting the United States in the change of embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel, experts say.